My son and I went up there in January. Some reasonable hard work will get you to the trail at the base of the cliff/top of the talus below Glacier Point, but I won't kid you - after walking/scrambling up about another 1/4 mile to the sign that says to go back, you see a cliff face that looks soberingly unstable. I would not go under it in the winter when the ice can crack off rocks, and I am not sure I would chance it in the summer. One small rock can ruin your whole day (life!).

Quotebpnjensen
My son and I went up there in January. Some reasonable hard work will get you to the trail at the base of the cliff/top of the talus below Glacier Point, but I won't kid you - after walking/scrambling up about another 1/4 mile to the sign that says to go back, you see a cliff face that looks soberingly unstable. I would not go under it in the winter when the ice can crack off rocks, and I am not sure I would chance it in the summer. One small rock can ruin your whole day (life!).

It seemed to me that last fall's rockfall into Curry Village came from that area of the Glacier Point face.

The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.-- Carl Sagan

According to the "Death in Yosemite" book the Ledge Trail is the 3rd Deadliest Geographic Entity in the park behind El Cap and The Merced River.If you attempt it can you please report back your experience.Good luck

> According to the "Death in Yosemite" book the Ledge Trail is> the 3rd Deadliest Geographic Entity in the park behind El Cap> and The Merced River.> If you attempt it can you please report back your experience.> Good luck>I heard of this trail a year or so ago, and thought it would be a good one to add to my "want to" list. After reading about it in "Death in Yosemite", it's off my list, I have no interest in even trying it.

It was a dangerous trail when it was really a trail. Now it's deteriorated significantly from there, so please use all the wise precautions and be willing to turn back if your instinct tells you to. Or forget it...there are lots of other places to go off the beaten path in the valley.

I worked for Curry Company from 1962 to 1967 during the summers andclimbed the ledge trail one time after work with a buddy. It was unmarked then and certain portions had very loose sand and granitewhere for each step forward you slid back two steps. The last portionwas not as overgrown as pictured on the website. We got dinner atthe Glacier Point Hotel and watched the firefall that night. We caughta ride down to the valley with some tourists and were back to workthe next morning.

>Seems unlikely that he has been waiting since Sept 2007 to be asked about trip. Possibly didn't make it.Yup .. AWOL

>Is that photo since the 2008 Curry rockfall?photo was taken this last Sunday.. I tried spying it from various places (snow crk. trl) (mt. watkins) last year...but this is the best view I've seen showing it to my knowledge...

My boyfriend and I looking to hike this trail. I am incredibly intrigued by it. The picture you posted is not accessible without access. Please could you repost it. Also, the part near the staircase falls is a little scary, seems like a part of the trail was affected by the rockfall. Not sure.

My boyfriend and I looking to hike this trail. I am incredibly intrigued by it. The picture you posted is not accessible without access. Please could you repost it. Also, the part near the staircase falls is a little scary, seems like a part of the trail was affected by the rockfall. Not sure.

Thanks!

My son and I tried it a couple years ago. Going up past the existing rockslide east and south of Curry Village, there is a point along the trail shortly after you reach the Glacier Point sheer cliff where there is literally a yellow DANGER sign and it looks like a million tons of rock is a microsecond away from falling on your head. You get the impression that one false move, one badly placed footstep, one inadvertant cough or sneeze, would set off geological Armageddon. It looks like death is imminent. As intriguing as it is, we will never go up that way again. I would not recommend it to anyone. Stick with something easy and fairly safe and still thrilling, like Mt. Dana or Half Dome or Sierra Point. Forget the Ledge Trail.

As I recall, the recommendation, when the trail was open, was to do the trail uphill and NOT down.More than a few hikers were rescued when they were heard at Camp Curry calling for help from the trail.

The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.-- Carl Sagan

QuoteTicTacToe
I'm considering to hike the Ledge Trail too. Does anybody know if the rockfall in 2008 had any impact on the trail? If you hiked the trail after the rockfall, would you help to share your experience?

And for the trail itself, is it more dangerous/difficult than Mount Whitney MR?

I have done a lot of reading up on both trails that you mention, and I think that you will find per capita, more people have died/injured on the Ledge Trail than MR. I believe that the rewards are far greater on the MR and the odds are more reasonable for a positive outcome, too. (if I knew you, I would say more, but I will leave it at this)(one of the nicest expressions of friendship was when a dear friend talked me out of doing Half Dome in the Winter with the cables down, I hope that you have such a friend)

I've always been fascinated about this trail. There's little chance I'd hike it without someone that has done it before, however. And only in the "up" direction. Found a neat panorama from a vista point on The Ledge.

Quotekrusovice
I've always been fascinated about this trail. There's little chance I'd hike it without someone that has done it before, however. And only in the "up" direction. Found a neat panorama from a vista point on The Ledge.

For those that have been on the trail, is this near the gully where you make the final ascent?

For your first time go up it, not down. I believe most of the deaths were from people who took it down on their first time. There's a place right after you come down out of the gully where you have do a sharp right turn to cross the creek so you can stay close to the cliffs above you as you go down the ledge. If you miss this turn, or don't know better, you end up going down the cliffs that Staircase Falls is tumbling down ( which is what I imagine the bodies did also ).

The trail finding going up it is pretty simple. You keep going up, don't expect to find a trail because it's almost entirely gone, stay away from the cliff drop off on your right, hug the cliff going up to your left. The conditions are pretty bad, loose stuff where you slip downhill 1' for every 2' up, lose rocks that'll turn underfoot and twist your ankles, steep slopes to tumble down if you slip.

Last time I was up there all the landmarks I remembered were gone. The rock falls had wiped areas out. There's been more falls since.

As you're going up the ledge you get to a point where you cross the creek, do a sharp left, and start up the gully. The Pano was taken just after this. As you keep going up you quickly get surrounded by the cliffs so you no longer have any view.

I'd consider this trail easier for the first timer than the Sierra Point trail. Now there's a trail you need someone that knows their way. My first time on Ledge Trail I just kept going up. My first time on Sierra Point I didn't know where to start so I ended up doing some killer bushwacking. I then missed a turn and got ledged. Rock climbing up to the trail isn't the way it's supposed to be.

Went up it July 18 2009, Wonderful trail and not too hard, I wouldn't do it with other people unless I could really count on them being very careful about not disturbing loose rocks and starting rockslides for yourselves and the folks below (and being careful even though you're all tired puffing up that hill!) . There was one ~50 yard section of sloping rock with loose material on top where not being slow and deliberate and careful would be quite dangerous. The stream was beautiful but try not to trample the streamside vegetation too much.

Quoteeeek
I've heard the Ledge Trail has been used quite a bit as a winter ski route to Glacier Point. It's faster than coming in from Badger. But there is an avalanche issue.

Riding the crest of an avalanche would definitely make it even faster.

A Ride On An Avalanche

Few Yosemite visitors ever see snow avalanches and fewer still know the exhilaration of riding on them. In all my mountaineering I have enjoyed only one avalanche ride, and the start was so sudden and the end came so soon I had but little time to think of the danger that attends this sort of travel, though at such times one thinks fast. One fine Yosemite morning after a heavy snowfall, being eager to see as many avalanches as possible and wide views of the forest and summit peaks in their new white robes before the sunshine had time to change them, I set out early to climb by a side cañon to the top of a commanding ridge a little over three thousand feet above the Valley. On account of the looseness of the snow that blocked the cañon I knew the climb would require a long time, some three or four hours as I estimated; but it proved far more difficult than I had anticipated. Most of the way I sank waist deep, almost out of sight in some places. After spending the whole day to within half an hour or so of sundown, I was still several hundred feet below the summit. Then my hopes were reduced to getting up in time to see the sunset. But I was not to get summit views of any sort that day, for deep trampling near the cañon head, where the snow was strained, started an avalanche, and I was swished down to the foot of the cañon as if by enchantment. The wallowing ascent had taken nearly all day, the descent only about a minute. When the avalanche started I threw myself on my back and spread my arms to try to keep from sinking. Fortunately, though the grade of the cañon is very steep, it is not interrupted by precipices large enough to cause outbounding or free plunging. On no part of the rush was I buried. I was only moderately imbedded on the surface or at times a little below it, and covered with a veil of back-streaming dust particles; and as the whole mass beneath and about me joined in the flight there was no friction, though I was tossed here and there and lurched from side to side. When the avalanche swedged and came to rest I found myself on top of the crumpled pile without bruise or scar. This was a fine experience. Hawthorne says somewhere that steam has spiritualized travel; though unspiritual smells, smoke, etc., still attend steam travel. This flight in what might be called a milky way of snow-stars was the most spiritual and exhilarating of all the modes of motion I have ever experienced. Elijah's flight in a chariot of fire could hardly have been more gloriously exciting.